All Items in ‘12 Days of Christmas’ Now Top $107K

By KEVIN BEGOS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Add seven swans, six geese and five golden rings to the list of Christmas gifts that cost more than they did a year ago.

And if you get all 364 items repeated throughout “The Twelve Days of Christmas” carol, you’ll pay 6.1 percent more this year, according to the so-called Christmas Price Index that PNC Wealth Management updates annually.

That comes to $107,300.

Thrifty shoppers may find some reasons for cheer. Six items mentioned in the song haven’t gone up in price: maids-amilking, ladies dancing, lords-aleaping, calling birds, turtle doves and the partridge. The eight maids-a-milking still cost just $58 because the minimum wage hasn’t risen.

Twelve drummers drumming ($2,775.50) and eleven pipers piping

($2,562) might also be considered relative bargains compared to seven swans, which will set you back $7,000. Nine ladies dancing will cost you $6,294.03.

The 2011 drought caused the prices of some birds to soar, partly because of corn and other feed costs.

The price of a pear tree is $189.99, an 11.8 percent jump from last year’s $169.99. Five gold rings jumped 16.3 percent this year, to $750, and three French hens are now $165, instead of $150.

The $15 partridge is the cheapest item, and swans the most expensive, at $1,000 each.

Buying one set of the core items in each verse on the internet costs $24,431 in traditional stores this year, but $40,440 online. Part of that difference is the extra expense of shipping live birds, adding that Internet costs rose 1.5 percent compared to last year.